Roman oratory

[Andy]

Seeing Rome (best TV series in the world) I noticed heavily the fact that Romans, while in speech (at least proper speech and not the mob-arousing declamations of Mark Anthony) used a lot of hand gestures and particular movements.

The Forum crier also uses these movements, like digging swoops when he mentions Caius Iulius Caesar's name, or up-down pounds of his left hand when mentioning Mark Anthony's name.

Research has got me little far, as I don't know precisely what I'm looking for. So I turn to the venerable Forum wondering if anyone knows about the Roman art of gesturing?

 

[timeodanaos]

I've heard there were 'manuals' on how to move the arms properly whilst orating; for example to avoid moving the left arm too much, in which case the toga would fall off. I'm not sure in whose writings these guidelines could be, it's only something I've heard mentioned by one of my teachers when we had a short course on retorics.

Best guess would maybe be ad Herennium.

(btw, about that series, I think Caesar should be balder, since he is described as such )

 

[Cato]

There is enough data on this topic for a graduate study. This selection from Quintilian is a good starting point

He recommends the orator study the movements of stage actors (but only to the extent they are directly applicable to the rhetoric; it is too easy to come off as theatrical or flamboyant otherwise). He also takes note that the orator must control his facial expressions (too avoid looking unpleasant).

He also says that learning to dance--while it is an "unseemly" pasttime--can help an orator move gracefully and effortlessly, an important point in delivering long speeches while standing. This part is interesting because he goes out of his way to defend dancing--noting, for example, that the Spartans used it in military training--which indicates I think the general low-status accorded dance in ancient Rome. However, Quintilian closes with the following words:

Observation of this discipline (dancing) has descended without censure even to our time. By me, however, it will not be continued beyond the years of boyhood, nor in them long, for I do not wish the gesture of an orator to be formed to resemble that of a dancer, but I would have some influence from such juvenile exercises left, so that the gracefuless communicated to us while we were learning may secretly attend us when we are not thinking of our movements.